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Hybrid Ultra Flexible Printed Circuits combining flexible and low-cost printed electronics with high performance traditional silicon components.

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - UFPC Technology (Hybrid Ultra Flexible Printed Circuits combining flexible and low-cost printed electronics with high performance traditional silicon components.)

Reporting period: 2015-07-01 to 2015-10-31

"The main objective of UFPC technology is the development and integration into commercial products of the prototypes of the hybrid Ultra Flexible Printed Circuits (UFPC) that combines printed electronics with traditional silicon components in an ultra-low cost, ultra-thin and ultra-flexible electronic circuit solution.

THE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY is based on the current demand for thin, flexible, low-costs, lightweight and intelligent circuits to be added to everyday items.

Printed electronics is a revolutionary, new way of manufacturing electronic components by using standard printing processes coming from the graphic arts, such as screen printing or inkjet, the difference being that it uses conducting inks. This new technique allows to print electronic components and circuits (e.g. connectors, resistors, sensors, transistors), on widely differing flexible substrates, like plastic, textiles or paper. The printed circuits and components are thin, lightweight, flexible, enabling single use/disposable devices, ubiquitous electronics and new applications, with high volume production at an economical price, compared to traditional silicon electronics.

VIVAINNOVA, a company specialised in the field of printed electronics, has developed an innovative hybrid technology, the Ultra Flexible Printed Circuit (UFPC) that combines printed electronics with traditional silicon components in an ultra-low cost, ultra-thin and ultra-flexible electronic circuit solution. Through the new UFPC technology we will transform the electronics industry by exploiting the competitive advantages of both technologies, combining the ‘high-performance and intelligent silicon-electronics’ with the ‘cost-effective and flexible printed electronics’ and to fill the technological gap between fully-printed electronics and the expansive market of the intelligent objects. The UFPC technology will develop a new generation of electronic circuits giving to the products many properties previously unthinkable like ‘smart capabilities’ combined with ‘flexibility, thinness, light-weight and robustness’, at an ‘economical price’. It will allow to reduce the manufacturing cost of smart flexible electronic circuits by up to 50% compared with the current hybrid solutions.

To finish developing the UFPC technology we need to go from prototype demonstrators to products completed, tested in relevant operational environments and certified. Through the UFPC technology project, we look for accelerating the route from ""lab to fab"" and to introduce to the market our UFPC technology, offering the ability to mass manufacture a new generation of smart and low-cost hybrid printed circuits providing new solutions to our clients.

The aim of the feasibility study was to look more in depth at getting more application-driven solutions integrated in real products, facilitating the market uptake of our UFPC technology through new applications. With that in mind we have evaluated the inclusion of key stakeholders for manufacturing our hybrid circuits in an industrial supply chain and key clients to integrate and test our circuits within end products demonstrating the maturity, the performance and great potential benefits of this technology. The main focus is to facilitate in this way commercialization routes for our UFPC circuits."
Strategic key market application areas demanding for flexible circuits include customized low-costs circuits for customer electronics as sensors, keypads or heaters for household appliances, industrial machinery and automotive. On those areas the demand for thin, flexible, low-costs, lightweight and intelligent circuits to be added to the products is growing rapidly. The remarkably swift development of flexible and printed electronics is promoting new possibilities for cost-effective manufacturing of electronic devices. However, compared with silicon-based circuits, state-of-the-art all-printed circuits are encountering low integration density, long switching time and corresponding high cost per function. It means that printed components are still far away of the complex functionality and processing capability of the silicon ones. In consequence, the current technologies like the silicon and the printed electronics are not satisfying those new challenges.

To fill the gap between fully-printed electronics and the expansive market of the intelligent objects, hybrid circuits, i.e. printed circuits including silicon-based components, have appeared in the market and are in increasing demand. They employ cost-effective, large-area manufacturing techniques while keeping the same complex functionality and processing capability as silicon-based systems. However, due to the difficulty of assembling silicon components to plastic circuits, they use complex materials and processes. In consequence, those hybrid solutions are still quite expensive for a wide market uptake and their market is limited to ‘high range’ applications like complex aircraft electronics, OLED displays, professional video cameras, etc., that can absorb the high price, leaving out a wide range of lower cost applications like flexible keypads, customized heaters, flexible sensors, etc.

The feasibility study has allowed VIVAINNOVA to detect two UFPC products with great commercial potential in the market, and define the new strategies and conclusions for UFPC technology project to reach the market:
The direct contact with OEM manufacturers and suppliers has been very useful to detect the necessity of developing 2 different applications well adapted to the end user needs:

o Intelligent occupant detector and heating system for passenger seats in vehicles.
o Capacitive touch sensors-keypads for household appliances or industrial machines.

Occupant detectors and heaters have been selected after several discussions with one supplier of an important car manufacturer who show us their great commercial potential. Occupancy detectors are mainly used to activate belt reminders. Seat belt reminders for ALL passenger seats will be mandatory in Europe on new vehicles types in 2019 and for all new vehicles in 2023. We will be the 1st company proposing a solution integrating occupancy detectors in ALL passenger’s seats and flexible heaters allowing to increase safety and comfort of the passengers with a robust and cost-effective solution.

We have also been working very closely with domestic appliances and industrial machines leaders on the specifications of UFPC capacitive touch sensors for their machines. The crucial factors for the mass adoption of the capacitive touch sensors are “low-cost, flexibility and easy-to-use”. Our solution fulfill these requirements and allow capacitive touchscreens to be massively installed on household appliances, industrial machines and all type of electronic devices requiring human interface. Our solution is as stylish as practical. We aim to expand the UFPC adoption to the highest range of products of our partners. Our unique selling points are the reduction of the manufacturing cost of capacitive touch sensors by up to 50% compared with the current solutions, and the sensors integration in complex forms.

The conclusion of the freedom to operate analysis is that there are no patents, which might prevent the patentability and commercial exploitation of the UFPC technology results. In fact, UFPC technology has two patents. Considering that the project is going to develop new products in very innovative applications that can be patented for the innovation introduced by several aspects of functionality and circuit’s layout, VIVAINNOVA will ensure a structured process to identify, assess, protect and subsequently exploiting the IPR generated during the project. VIVAINNOVA will be responsible for the application of patent application.
VIVAINNOVA aims at becoming the first company worldwide providing a new generation of hybrid electronic circuits to manufacturers of consumer electronics devices / OEMs (e.g. household appliances, automotive, industrial machinery, lighting, wearables, clothing & footwear, etc.) and electronic assemblers (i.e. companies outsourced by manufacturers that act as prescribers of our technology).

The UFPC technology is a hybrid technology within the Printed Electronics (PE) market, one of the fastest growing technologies in the world. The global market is estimated to be around 6-8 billion € in 2012, and forecasts it will grow to 170 billion € in 2025, growing at an average rate of 27% per year. It might allow to VIVAINNOVA a cumulative cash flow of € 7.9 million by year 2022 (year 5), only manufacturing UFPC circuits and licensing the UFPC technology.